Tag Archives | Iceland

Detailing the magnitude of Icelandic eruption risk is a tricky issue. Even volcanologists admit their helplessness – although Iceland continuously monitors seismic activity in real time. Given a certain level of activity it can take anything from 10s to several decades before the Earth’s crust fractures and millions of tonnes of magma, ash and gas […]

In April 2010 an Icelandic volcano – Eyjafjallajokull - famously shut down European aviation for nearly a week. Now Bárðarbunga threatens. This is what the Icelandic Meteorogical Office has to say about it: “Since the onset of the earthquake swarm at Bárðarbunga on Saturday [16 August] morning, around 2,600 earthquakes have been detected with the earthquake monitoring […]

EasyJet has just airfreighted – to a test centre at Airbus Toulouse – a tonne of Icelandic volcanic ash, collected by the Institute of Earth Sciences, Reykjavik. The ash, with a consistency like fine talcum powder – but very harmful to airframes and jet engines – will be used in an airborne experiment planned for […]